In the ring shaped spring device disclosed in Orlowski, there is a pair of spaced apart first and second annular support plates defining the ring shape of the spring device. A plurality of circumferentially spaced parallely oriented coil springs are disposed between the annular plates so that vertical movement of one plate toward the other compresses the springs. To interconnect the plates, an integral hook is formed in one plate and a loop is integrally formed in the other plate. The hook and loop are designed so that the device can be assembled by merely locating the various coil springs and then pressing one plate toward the other. The hook snaps over the loop to lock the plates together, with the coil springs partially compressed. However, when assembled in a transmission, the ring shaped spring device is compressed further so that the hook actually disengages the loop. Consequently, during repetitive operation of the spring assembly over many years, the individual coil springs can become canted in a manner to reduce the spring constant and cause damage and/or unintended biasing forces. By compressing the spring device for shifting the gears of the automatic transmission, distortion of the coil springs in the annular direction is magnified. Consequently, the prior ring shaped spring device, as shown in Orlowski only employs the concept of integral interconnecting elements and does not address the problem of controlling the annular movement of the spaced plates during long term operation of the spring device. Orlowski also must remove four of his coil springs to provide space for integral hooks used to maintain the plates relative to one another. As a result, the force produced by the Orlowski spring device is not maximized and is not balanced. The spring assembly in copending application Ser. No. 10/078,465 is a different mechanism to overcome the deficiency of Orlowski regarding circumferential shifting. But, this design uses spaces which should accept coil springs.